As Wimbledon begins, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are still on top. But the next generation has arrived in force. 'It's time for a change.'

For the upstarts of women's tennis, it was a moment that said: "We have arrived."

At the French Open earlier this month,
Serena Williams
was clobbered.
Li Na
,
the Australian Open champion, was bounced in the first round. And
Maria Sharapova
needed three of the gutsiest performances of her career to turn back three rising stars on the way to winning the title.

Though Sharapova won in Paris against 22-year-old Romanian Simona Halep, Halep and a group of young women born in the 1990s announced their presence. Now, with Wimbledon set to begin Monday, women's tennis has finally found its future. This generation is the one women's tennis fans have been waiting for, the one that can carry the sport after the last of the legends born in the 1980s—Serena and
Venus Williams
and Sharapova—retire.

Women's tennis makes a comeback. How does the new generation of stars play differently and who could be the next big player? USTA player development general manager and ESPN tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe joins Tanya Rivero on Lunch Break with the answers. Photo: Getty

The new kids are big hitters and fast movers. They're brash. They don't cower when facing past champions. They're relentless. They're creative and play to the crowd. And they don't just bash tennis balls; they hit drop shots and volleys and slices and sharp angles. They're so fun to watch that the final between Halep and Sharapova, which lasted a little over three hours, felt like it ended too soon.

"They're young, they're hungry and they're full of potential," said Tracy Austin, the former No. 1 player.

Coming up alongside Halep is Eugenie Bouchard, a 20-year-old Canadian who reached the semifinals at both the French Open and the Australian Open in January. Tennis experts rave about her attacking style, poise and instincts.

"I definitely feel like I can play with the best girls in the game," Bouchard said.

Garbiñe Muguruza, a 20-year-old of Spanish and Venezuelan descent, handed Serena Williams the most lopsided defeat of her Grand Slam career in the second round of the French Open, 6-2, 6-2.

"I like to play on big courts, center courts, against amazing players," Muguruza said.

Halep, who played in her first Grand Slam final in Paris, has climbed to third in the world rankings from 53rd at the end of 2011. Her match against Sharapova was the first French Open final to last three sets since 2001.

"She pushed me to the limit," Sharapova said.

Other up-and-comers include 21-year-old American Sloane Stephens; Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic (21); last year's junior Wimbledon champion, 17-year-old Belinda Bencic; Anna Schmiedlova (19), who beat Venus Williams at the French Open; Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (19); and Taylor Townsend, an 18-year-old American who was given a wild card into Wimbledon on the strength of her two victories at the French Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of her career. Townsend combines the power game of the present with the touch volleys of the past.

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"It's time for a change," Muguruza said. "There are so many players who have been for such a long time on the top."

As men's tennis built a new audience around the otherworldly accomplishments of
Roger Federer
and Rafael Nadal, with strong assists from Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, women's tennis stalled.

Between March 1997 and August 2005, nine different women reached the No. 1 ranking: Martina Hingis,
Lindsay Davenport,
Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo and Sharapova. Those women have each won at least two Grand Slam singles titles and have amassed 53 total in their careers so far.

Most of these players continued to make it tough on each other for several years, but starting about five years ago, they were leaving the stage. Only three of those women—Venus Williams, 34, Serena Williams, 32, and Sharapova, 27—are playing today. Two of them, Serena Williams and Sharapova, are still considered the players to beat. Williams had one of her finest seasons last year, with a 78-4 record and 11 titles.

Owing to injuries, flawed games, and crises of confidence at critical moments, the new No. 1s of the past few years haven't lasted and haven't won. Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka have a total of three Grand Slam singles titles among them; Jankovic, Safina and Wozniacki got to No. 1 without winning a major.

"The field got diluted," said Rick Macci, the Florida coach who trained Capriati and the Williams sisters when they were kids.

Some have said these recent doldrums have helped Serena Williams stay at the top of the game up until now. "Serena, I have all the respect for her, but I still think that for her it's easier today than five years ago," said Carlos Rodriguez, the former coach of Henin and the current coach of Li Na, who won the Australian Open.

That's about to change. The children of the 1990s look like real champions and they're an impatient bunch. They want to get to the top now.

Muguruza, who is 6-feet tall, grew up admiring Hingis and Serena Williams.

"I work to go to the net, I like to play angles," she said. "It's better to have all the weapons."

Against Sharapova in the French Open quarterfinals, Muguruza stalked the baseline and attacked, punctuating forehand winners with fist pumps. Her smooth serve shows lots of promise and she's eager to do better soon.

"At the end, experience was more important," she said. "I have to learn fast."

Halep isn't as imposing at Muguruza: She's 5-foot-6 and doesn't have a dominant serve. A few years ago, she was seen as more of a defender, a scrambler who could run opponents ragged but wouldn't dictate many points. Halep decided she needed to do more to win, so she started to swing bigger and attack her opponents with shots hit at more severe angles.

"She hits the ball 15% to 20% harder than she did two years ago," said Davenport, the former No. 1. "It's a mentality."

Halep's coach, Wim Fissette, calls her one of the smartest players in the sport.

"If you watch her during the changeover, she's not just sitting there having a drink," Fissette said. "She's really thinking about the game: 'What did I do well the last two games, what can I do better, what will I do the next two games?'"

One thing Halep already does as well as anyone: anticipate what will happen next. She seems to be everywhere. During one 20-stroke rally against Sharapova, Halep survived only because she predicted where Sharapova would smash a ball that had barely cleared the net. She moved before Sharapova finished her swing and flicked a backhand that reset the point.

"It all starts with the footwork," Fissette said. "She has great feet."

Nick Saviano, who has worked with Bouchard at his academy in Florida since she was 12, sees the women's game tracking the men's game: more athleticism, a renewed emphasis on tactics and an advantage for players who can shorten points with bold attacks.

"What you see in the men, the women are not far behind," Saviano said. "Even Nadal's game has morphed over the years. He used to stay back and run. Now, anything short, he's on top of it in a second and he'll come in and finish."

Bouchard, who is 5-foot-10, wasn't a prodigy as a junior: She won the Wimbledon junior title at age 18, older than many who came before her (Sharapova won Wimbledon as a professional when she was 17). As a pro, though, Bouchard has advanced more rapidly than her peers and she's not shy about her ambition.

"I don't think the tennis tour is the place to have friends," she said in Paris. "For me it's all competition."

Bouchard has an excellent serve, a lot of power and variety. Her greatest strength is a seemingly endless supply of intensity—a gift, Saviano says, that can't be taught.

"She loves a big stage," he said. "A lot of people wilt under that. She loves it."

Macci, the former coach of the Williams sisters, has seen that kind of desire before, in the relentlessly competitive Williams. "Serena used to play tag with a closed fist," he said.

It would be too bold to predict that any young player will go on to rival Williams's accomplishments, especially since she could add a few more major titles to her collection before she's finished. But in Bouchard, Macci says he sees something that he hasn't seen in a while—something that women's tennis desperately needs.

"She has Grand Slams written all over her, and staying power," he said. "I see greatness."

Sharapova at 27 is not in the age class as the Williams sisters and could play another 5-8 years but will probably get married ,however she has so much $$$ its amazing to see her soldier on . Serena can still beat whoever she wants ,but she sometimes does not want to for some reason .Halep actually had breast reduction to swing better ,thats a real sacrifice that paid off. Great new crop no doubt.

@Frank Dickof apparently not if you look at the stands. It's hilarious, even at the French, no one was in the stands for the women, even Serena's match. Can you blame anyone? Women tennis players either can't run or can't serve. Most are out of shape tubbies.

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